In my trainings and workshops, I often ask people, “What is true responsibility for them and how does it manifest itself?” And very often the notion of responsibility causes unpleasant feelings in a person. Almost always it is associated with a sense of duty to others and a sense of one’s own unfreedom, tension, risk, etc.
False beliefs and convictions, as well as past experiences, very often lead to a fear of taking responsibility. We choose not to take responsibility for our actions, feelings, and words and this not only alienates us from others, but also makes us a victim of circumstances. In fact, at this point we choose to be puppets of our own unconscious motives.
Awareness in the Moment
True responsibility means being fully aware of all our reactions and being able to respond to what is happening in the immediate moment. We often think we are free, and yet when we get into the same situations, we act reactively, blaming people or circumstances for what happened. We also shift responsibility for our inner state to the world around us, and this is a deep habit of ours that has its roots in early childhood.
Most likely, we learned this perception of life from our parents and teachers. We have become accustomed to a model of the world where it is easiest to blame others for our failures. There is always someone to blame. This attitude makes us more and more unhappy and dissatisfied. Our behavior is so deeply conditioned that we are not aware of our own motives. We simply don’t know how to behave differently.
At the heart of the reluctance to take responsibility is also the fear of being an adult and coming into contact with reality in the present moment. We fear maturity because, as children, we have seen how many problems adults have and how hard life is for them.
We have deeply imbibed a false image of responsibility and conditioning of this kind does not make us want to grow. But if we want freedom, sooner or later we will have to choose real responsibility.
Responsibility is not an obligation, it is a deep process that will require you to be awareness in the moment.patience and understanding. It is important to have a sincere desire to move in this direction. Being aware of the reactivity of your actions in specific situations is the first step toward maturity.
We usually don’t analyze our behavior and see how it is related to the conditioning we received as children. An important step in this direction, however, would be a willingness to see how we subconsciously choose to be unconscious, and how this affects our relationship with the world.
Responsibility – a step toward inner maturity
As we become more conscious, over time we begin to feel the joy of the freedom that responsibility gives us. Step by step we learn to see our reactions, the consequences of our actions.
We learn to change our our attitudes toward people and events when we’re not comfortable with them.
There comes a moment when the understanding comes that responsibility is an important step toward inner maturity. And when that happens, the feeling of being a powerless victim of circumstances goes away. Instead comes the knowledge that much in life depends on us and our of our own conscious of what happens in life.
True responsibility leads to the feeling that you are not living someone else’s life, but your own!
